Board of Directors
Manitoba Dairy Farm Management Group Board of Directors
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Chairperson – Josh Verhoog Josh Verhoog is the second son of Garry and Teresa Verhoog who farm at St. Labre, where he is herd manager. This involves making the day to day management decisions and scheduling labour requirements where 750 cows are milked through a parallel parlor and housed in 2 new freestall barns built over the last couple of years. TMR consists of homegrown forages and hi-moisture corn supplemented with commodity feeds. In June 2015, Josh and Krissy were blessed with the birth of their first child. |
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| Vice-Chair – Albert Wolfe, his wife Alyson and their 3 children emigrated to their dairy in La Broquerie in 1996. Their freestall facility houses approx. 160 cows milked through a 20 swing herringbone parlor. A recent expansion project has seen facility improvements for dry cows and youngstock. They have 2 long-term employees and farm over 1100 acres, growing all their forage and grain corn. They feed a TMR using commodity feeds and a purchased mineralized supplement. The farm operates a successful low cost input system and is largely able to raise sufficient youngstock as herd replacements. During the summer, dry cows and heifers are pastured. Manure is stored in a slurrystore and is the main nutrient for growing the corn. The 3 children help with chores and as a family they enjoy exploring Manitoba and traveling abroad. They are also actively involved in their church fellowship. |
| Secretary – Dave Plett, along with his wife Jill and their 3 children is the herd manager of Rockrose Dairy, near Kleefeld. This is a 3rd generation farm and together with Dave’s parents Wayne and Darlene & his grandparents, they farm 1600 acres. They are able to grow all the forage required for the 180 cow herd, with the remaining acres being cash cropped. A slurrystore provides storage for the manure which is used as the main nutrient for the corn crop. A TMR is fed to the herd that are now housed in a new 4 robot barn built in 2012. The dry cows and youngstock are housed in the older facility. Dave is a volunteer firefighter and he and his wife Jill are very involved in their church fellowship. |
| John Georgison farms with his wife Roxanne, 2 daughters, parents and 2 brothers north of Winnipeg. They built a new barn c/w 3 robots in 2007 after having operated an older tiestall facility, previously. They grow and harvest all their own forage, cash cropping the remaining acres using custom operators to complete the tasks. Some of the grain is fed to the dairy herd, which is fed a TMR delivered by a conveyor belt system to the feed fence. Youngstock are still raised at the older facility, with the hope that they can update this facility in the not too distant future. |
| Marc De Klein, his wife Debbie and their 3 children operate a 200 cow dairy in La Broquerie (SE Manitoba). They retro-fitted 3 VMS units into their existing barn in 2007 and have since built a new heifer raising facility. They farm 1000 acres, growing all their forage and some corn and soybeans as cash crops. They have 2 full-time employees and share some larger items of machinery with a neighbour to make good use of the investments and to achieve timely harvesting. They are active in their community and church, ensuring that they spend lots of time with the family. In 2016, a new barn was built housing 4 robots, with a fifth in place for fresh and lame cows on a straw pack. |
